


The Secret Origin of Lancelot Sidney Arthur Oliver Malik

by tlh_in_tlh



Category: Widdershins (Webcomic)
Genre: Gen, Spoilers for Chapter 7: Curtain Call
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-09
Updated: 2020-11-09
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:35:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27445750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tlh_in_tlh/pseuds/tlh_in_tlh
Summary: Five-year-old Lancelot Sydney Arthur Oliver Malik doesn't know it yet, but he's made a friend for life. (Oops, didn't mean to do  that....)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 9





	The Secret Origin of Lancelot Sidney Arthur Oliver Malik

**Author's Note:**

> I don't remember if canon ever mentions whether or not Sidney's family has ever visited the Widdershins Anchor before, but it seems likely to me...  
> ALSO, I don't know but that there would be all sorts of restrictions on visitors to the Anchor, what with the whole "intense emotions can summon the Deadlies" thing, but I suspect that's something that the Anchor Witch is supposed to regulate, and you know how neglected that's been...  
> And, he's five; he hasn't quite begun to think of himself as "Sidney" yet

Lancelot Sydney Arthur Oliver Malik had seen something shiny, and it was flitting away from him, and he was _not_ going to let it escape! He'd only caught glimpses of it, and he didn't know what it was. Sometimes it was one color, and sometimes another, and sometimes it was glittery and sometimes it was shiny, but if he could just _catch_ it, he was sure he could figure it out! He wove through the forest of legs and skirts as if they were still, dodging and side-stepping. He didn't realize he was working his way closer and closer to the Anchor itself; closer and closer to where a sufficiently-powerful wizard could summon spirits even without a circle and incantation. (He also didn't realize that he _was_ a sufficiently-powerful wizard, but then, no one knew that yet.)

And so he tried to catch the thing, and the magic of the Anchor responded and tried to give him what he sought. It was just--There! he'd almost had it! Right behind that--! He pounced, but was caught by large, familiar hands, caught and tossed up, the breath shocked out of him in a startled squeak, the shiny thing escaped, a moment of wild disappointment, nearly forgotten the next second.

"Gotcha, you eel you! Kirti, here's our boy! Off on one of his wild chases!" Rajeev caught his son safely to him and ignored the scandalized looks from the respectable folks around him. He understood the need of children to run at times. Bad timing, this one, but not dangerous.

"Lancelot! How many times have I told you!? No running in crowds! You could have hurt yourself or someone else!" Kirti bustled up to them, out of breath. 

"But mama, papa, such a pretty thing! Pretty colors! All them! Shiny an' fast! Did you see? Did you see it go?" Lancelot twisted about in his father's arms, still straining for a glimpse of the thing he'd chased. No luck. He slumped, his normally cheeful demeanor overtaken for once by melancholy. "It was the prettiest thing. I dunno what it was, but it was soooo pretty." His brown eyes welled with unusual tears as he pleaded with them. "Did you see?"

"No, honey, we didn't. Let's go back to the hotel for tea. You can tell us all about it." He was already drooping, his head coming to rest on his father's wide shoulder.

"Oh. it was just so..." He trailed off into atypical silence. Kirti and Rajeev looked at each other and their son, not sure if they should be concerned or not, then made their way back to the hotel. Lancelot was unsettlingly quiet for the rest of the afternoon.

He wouldn't see the shiny thing again, but years later, he would _finally_ see the spirit he'd accidentally partially-summoned that day.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, I think his intense, good-natured little five-year-old self actually summoned that acquisitive but not malicious "malform" that is his magpie. (I have such a hard time referring to it as a malform.)


End file.
